Ezekiel 21:21
For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.
Treasury of Scripture

the king

Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the LORD.

Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turns it wherever he will.

parting [heb] mother
to use

Numbers 23:28 And Balak brought Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks toward Jeshimon.

Deuteronomy 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that uses divination...

1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD...

Proverbs 16:10 A divine sentence is in the lips of the king: his mouth transgresses not in judgment.

Acts 16:16 And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us...

he made. Or as the Vulgate, `he mingled his arrows.' They wrote on several arrows,' says Jerome, the names of the cities they intended to assault; and then putting them altogether promiscuously in a quiver, they drew then out thence as lots to be drawn; and that city whose name was written on the arrow first drawn, was the city they first made war on.'

arrows. or, knives
images [heb] teraphim

Genesis 31:19,30 And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's...

Judges 17:5 And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

Judges 13:14,18,20,24 She may not eat of any thing that comes of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing...

2 Kings 23:24 Moreover the workers with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols...

Hosea 3:4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image...

Hosea 4:12 My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declares to them: for the spirit of prostitutions has caused them to err...

Zechariah 10:2 For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain...



Context
The Parable of the Lord's Sword

1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and drop your word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel, 3And say to the land of Israel, Thus said the LORD; Behold, I am against you, and will draw forth my sword out of his sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked. 4Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall my sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north: 5That all flesh may know that I the LORD have drawn forth my sword out of his sheath: it shall not return any more. 6Sigh therefore, you son of man, with the breaking of your loins; and with bitterness sigh before their eyes. 7And it shall be, when they say to you, Why sigh you? that you shall answer, For the tidings; because it comes: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it comes, and shall be brought to pass, said the Lord GOD. 8Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus said the LORD; Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also furbished: 10It is sharpened to make a sore slaughter; it is furbished that it may glitter: should we then make mirth? it scorns the rod of my son, as every tree. 11And he has given it to be furbished, that it may be handled: this sword is sharpened, and it is furbished, to give it into the hand of the slayer. 12Cry and howl, son of man: for it shall be on my people, it shall be on all the princes of Israel: terrors by reason of the sword shall be on my people: smite therefore on your thigh. 13Because it is a trial, and what if the sword scorn even the rod? it shall be no more, said the Lord GOD. 14You therefore, son of man, prophesy, and smite your hands together. and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain: it is the sword of the great men that are slain, which enters into their privy chambers. 15I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter. 16Go you one way or other, either on the right hand, or on the left, wherever your face is set. 17I will also smite my hands together, and I will cause my fury to rest: I the LORD have said it. 18The word of the LORD came to me again, saying, 19Also, you son of man, appoint you two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both two shall come forth out of one land: and choose you a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city. 20Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defended. 21For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver. 22At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort. 23And it shall be to them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken. 24Therefore thus said the Lord GOD; Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that you are come to remembrance, you shall be taken with the hand. 25And you, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, 26Thus said the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. 27I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him. 28And you, son of man, prophesy and say, Thus said the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites, and concerning their reproach; even say you, The sword, the sword is drawn: for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering: 29Whiles they see vanity to you, whiles they divine a lie to you, to bring you on the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked, whose day is come, when their iniquity shall have an end. 30Shall I cause it to return into his sheath? I will judge you in the place where you were created, in the land of your nativity. 31And I will pour out my indignation on you, I will blow against you in the fire of my wrath, and deliver you into the hand of brutish men, and skillful to destroy. 32You shall be for fuel to the fire; your blood shall be in the middle of the land; you shall be no more remembered: for I the LORD have spoken it.
Parallel Verses
American Standard Version
For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shook the arrows to and fro, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver.


Douay-Rheims Bible
For the king of Babylon stood in the highway, at the head of two ways, seeking divination, shuffling arrows: he inquired of the idols, and consulted entrails.


Darby Bible Translation
For the king of Babylon standeth at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he shaketh his arrows, he inquireth of the teraphim, he looketh in the liver.


King James Bible
For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.


Young's Literal Translation
For stood hath the king of Babylon at the head of the way, At the top of the two ways, to use divination, He hath moved lightly with the arrows, He hath asked at the teraphim, He hath looked on the liver.


Ezekiel 21:20
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